Peace Review A Journal of Social Justice, 23170–175Copyrig.docx

Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 23:170–175
Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN 1040-2659 print; 1469-9982 online
DOI: 10.1080/10402659.2011.571601
Explaining Sexual Violence and Gender
Inequalities in the DRC
JANE FREEDMAN
Recent reports of mass rape and sexual violence against women
and girls in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are just the latest in
an ongoing
tale of gender-based violence that has characterized some of the
conflicts to
which the country has been subjected. But beyond these
conflicts, this violence
has also expanded to become a “normalized” part of everyday
life. Despite
existing legislation and policies on gender equality and
women’s rights, it
seems that this equality is still very far from reality, and women
still face
serious obstacles to enjoying their rights in the post-conflict
DRC. This essay
argues that the sexual and gender-based violence that is so
talked about as
part of the conflicts in the DRC is just one part of a continuum
of social
structures within the country that perpetuate gender inequalities
and forms
of domination. Despite interventions from international

organizations and
international and national nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) aiming to
advance women’s rights and gender equality, it seems that there
is still a long
way to go in this domain.
S exual and gender-based violence remains a huge problem in
the DRC, anddespite prevention efforts by national and
international actors, incidences
of sexual violence seem to be on the increase. In October and
November
2010 alone, the United Nations Organization Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) reported more
than two
thousand incidents of sexual violence in the country. Incidents
of sexual and
gender-based violence have clearly increased since the start of
the conflict,
and much violence has been committed by the armed forces and
by militias
involved in the fighting.
In Eastern DRC, the International Rescue Committee has found
that 56
percent of women reporting sexual violence were attacked by
armed groups
while they were conducting their everyday activities. Sexual
violence should
not, however, be interpreted merely as a “side-effect” of this
conflict that
will disappear when peace returns. In fact in “post-conflict”
DRC, and even
in provinces where fighting has ceased, levels of sexual and
gender-based

170
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND GENDER INEQUALITIES 171
violence remain high. Much of this violence is committed by
civilians, not
just by armed forces or militias.
In fact, it seems that there has been a process of
“normalization” of
sexual and gender-based violence with the breakdown of
traditional sanctions
and the spread of general impunity at all levels. The normalized
attitudes to
sexual violence were reported in research carried out with
soldiers from the
Congolese Army who made a distinction between “lust” (or
“normal” rape),
understood as a product of “normal” male desire, and “evil”
rape, which was
accompanied by a particularly high and thus unjustified level of
violence. This
type of typology demonstrates the extent to which sexual and
gender-based
violence have become a banalized part of social relations within
the DRC.
This violence is clearly a hindrance to any advances in gender
equality within
the post-conflict DRC, but also must be seen as a product of
fundamental
social structures of inequality within society.
One of the problems that can be identified in programs aimed at

pre-
venting sexual and gender-based violence is the fact that they
sometimes fail
to place this violence within a wider social context. In focusing
on help for
victims, they do not address the more fundamental causes rooted
in traditional
gender roles and representations, and the low social, political,
and economic
status of women in Congolese society. One interviewee working
for an inter-
national NGO explained, for example, that her organization
worked only in the
east of the DRC as this was the only region where there was
conflict-related
sexual violence. She made a clear distinction between this
conflict-related
violence and other types of sexual and gender-based violence
occurring in
the DRC, a distinction that is common amongst international
organizations
and NGOs working in the country, but which ignores the
continuum of vio-
lence existing within the country, and thus the fundamental
social structures
underlying this continuum.
S exual and gender-based violence in the DRC cannot be viewed
merely asa product of conflict, but must also be considered in
relation to persis-
tent gender inequalities that characterize Congolese societies. In
some cases,
these inequalities have been exacerbated by conflict as women
have found
themselves increasingly as heads of household with
responsibility for the

survival of themselves and their children. Other women have
been forced
to migrate or displace in large numbers as a result of conflict.
These fac-
tors contribute to a general insecurity and lack of rights for
many Congolese
women.
Gender inequalities remain visible at all levels of social,
economic,
and cultural life. Concerning the economic status of women, for
example,
statistics show the feminine nature of poverty with 61.15
percent of female-
headed households living below the poverty line (as opposed to
54.32 percent
172 JANE FREEDMAN
of male households). Women’s economic activity is largely
concentrated in
traditional agriculture and in the informal sector, where they
have no pro-
tection against exploitation of various kinds. Women have little
access to
services such as health or education. One in two adult women is
illiterate
(as opposed to one in five adult men), with the rate of illiteracy
remain-
ing significantly higher for women than for men—41.1 percent
for women
and 14.2 percent for men. These inequalities are unlikely to
diminish in the
near future as girls have consistently less access to education

than boys,
with families judging that it is a better investment to place their
scarce re-
sources into boys’ education and to keep girls at home to help
with house-
hold duties or engage in informal work to bring additional
income to the
household. Statistics indicate that 42 percent of girls do not
finish primary
education.
Persistent gender inequality and the low status of women are
also visible
in the exclusion of women from political participation and
decision making.
Although the 2006 Constitution calls for gender parity in
elected institu-
tions, this was not adhered to in the constitution of lists of
candidates for
the elections of the same year. According to women who
participated in the
debates over this issue, male party members rejected any idea of
gender par-
ity or women’s quotas and accused any women who supported
these ideas
of lacking loyalty to the party cause. Following the 2006
elections, only
42 (or 8.4 percent) of the 500 deputies elected to the National
Assembly
were women. For the Senate, the figures were even lower, with
only five
women (4.6 percent) elected out of the 108 Senators in total.
Women are
also under-represented in provincial assemblies, making up just
43 deputies,
or 6.8 percent of the total. This under-representation of women

in elected
bodies is symptomatic of a society in which gender equality is
far from a
reality.
Obstacles to women’s election include both socioeconomic
factors such
as their lack of economic resources to fund a political
campaign, and also
persistent stereotypes concerning women’s role in society.
Women explained
that they did not have the necessary networks to become
candidates or to be
elected, and that women were not seen as having a real place in
politics. Other
women described the barriers posed by their lack of economic
resources to
woo the electorate. One woman, for example, described how the
hall where she
was holding an election meeting suddenly emptied when it was
announced that
a rival male candidate was distributing free meat to voters in the
town. While
there are some groups pressing for women’s greater inclusion in
political
decision making, including a group of women parliamentarians
and ministers
(the REFAMP—Réseau des femmes ministres et
parlementaires), there are
few avenues for women to make their voices heard in the formal
political
arena.

T here is, in fact, a legislative and policy framework for
advancing women’srights in the DRC. The preamble of the 2006
Constitution contains a com-
mitment to the principle of equality between men and women,
and Article 14
states that “the State shall have the duty to ensure the
elimination of all forms
of discrimination against women and ensure the respect and
promotion of
their rights.” The State must “take measures to address all forms
of violence
against women in public and private life,” and ensure the “full
participation
of women in the developmental agenda of the nation”
particularly guarantee-
ing the “right to meaningful representation in national,
provincial and local
institutions.” This theoretically far-reaching commitment to
gender equality
and women’s rights has, however, not been implemented in
practice, due to
a lack of both an adequate infrastructure and a real political will
to address
these issues.
Specific legislation and policies have also been adopted on
sexual and
gender-based violence. In 2006, two laws were passed by
government specif-
ically to address the problem of sexual violence, one of which
provides a
definition of rape (including both sexes and all forms of
penetration) and es-
tablishes penalties for rape, and the other that defines the
criminal procedure

that should be followed with regard to rape cases. The passage
of these laws
is a step in the right direction, but implementation remains weak
and there are
still very few prosecutions for sexual and gender-based
violence. Obstacles
to implementation include the difficulties that some women
have in talking
about their experiences of rape or sexual violence and the lack
of access to
police, medical services, lawyers, or courts, which is especially
severe for
women living in rural areas.
For many women, fear of retaliation by the perpetrator,
stigmatization by
the community, or rejection by their husband still prevents them
from talking
about sexual violence they have experienced or from taking any
action to have
the offenders prosecuted. The costs of bringing a case to court
remain high.
Women must pay to file a complaint and then for a medical
certificate and
legal assistance. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that
so few cases
actually come before the courts. Recognizing the need for
action in this area,
the DRC government adopted a National Strategy on Combating
Gender-
Based Violence, together with a detailed Action Plan on the
implementation
of this Strategy in 2009. It is still early to judge the impacts
that this Strategy
and Action Plan will have, but as with the 2006 laws on sexual
violence, it

seems that the obstacles to implementation remain real, and that
the Strategy
and Plan will not really be effective unless more widespread
efforts to increase
gender equality are made.
Action at a national-level has been accompanied by
interventions from
international organizations and NGOs. The United Nations (UN)
has put
in place a Comprehensive Strategy to Fight Sexual Violence
under which
174 JANE FREEDMAN
five thematic areas should be addressed: security sector reform;
prevention
and protection; combating impunity; multi-sectoral assistance;
and data and
mapping. This strategy is aimed at supporting and reinforcing
the DRC gov-
ernment’s own efforts, but faces many of the same problems in
terms of
implementation. One interviewee explained the huge challenges
in terms
of lack of resources for dealing with the widespread issue of
violence in
a huge territory with little infrastructure for accessing many of
those af-
fected. In addition, a very high proportion of resources for
intervention
are targeted at the eastern provinces of the DRC where there is
ongoing
conflict. This concentration of resources means that there is

little time or
money spent on dealing with questions of violence in the other
parts of
the country. Further, the response is framed very much in terms
of imme-
diate humanitarian action to help the victims of violence
(through, for ex-
ample, provision of medical services). While this type of action
is clearly
needed, the focus on short-term help for victims diverts
attention from any
longer term strategy, which would analyze the social causes of
violence
and gender inequality, and devise actions to transform social
relations and
structures.
A nother difficulty noted regarding interventions for victims of
sexual vi-olence is the perverse effects that this type of
intervention may have in
a context of extreme poverty and lack of resources. In a country
where only
1.8 percent of women have access to reproductive health
services, it is not
surprising that humanitarian programs providing medical
services to victims
of sexual violence should be approached by many women who
are not them-
selves victims, but who are desperately in need of medical
attention. Thus,
a perverse incentive is created for women to name themselves as
victims in
order to access the medical services that they require. This type
of difficulty
reflects a more general problem of trying to treat the
“symptoms” of sexual

violence without addressing the fundamental underlying causes
that are situ-
ated not only in the conflict in the DRC, but also in the
persistent gendered
inequalities.
Women’s poor socioeconomic situation, coupled with gendered
rep-
resentations and stereotypes that relegate women to a second-
class status
deprived of full citizenship, act to complete this vicious circle
in which sexual
violence exacerbates already existent forms of gender
inequality. The situation
for women in the DRC thus seems less than optimistic, and
unless government
and political parties make a real commitment to promoting
women’s rights
and gender equality in all areas, it is difficult to see where an
improvement
will come from.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Baaz Eriksson, Maria and Stem, Maria. 2009. “Why Do Soldiers
Rape? Masculinity, Sexuality
and Violence in the Armed Forces in the Congo.” International
Studies Quarterly 53:
495–518.
Freedman, Jane. 2010. “Les resolutions internationales contre
les violences faites aux femmes:

un outil pour la protection?” Science et Video 2: October.
Jane Freedman is a professor at the Université de Paris 8 and
researcher at the Centre d’Etudes Soci-
ologiques et Politiques de Paris (CRESPPA-GTM). She is
currently working as a programme specialist on
Gender Equality for UNESCO, where she is piloting several
research projects on sexual and gender-based
violence. Her publications include Gendering the International
Asylum and Refugee Debate (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007) and “Mainstreaming Gender in Refugee
Protection” in Cambridge Review of Interna-
tional Affairs (2010). E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright of Peace Review is the property of Routledge and its
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Project description:
Write an ATM C++ program simulation to do the three common
tasks: withdraw, deposit and balance checking
using three C++ functions. You must define 3 users. Each user
information is stored in an array. The WETHDRAW
function to make money withdrawal. The DEPOSIT function to

deposit money in the account. The CHECKING
function to check the account balance. To withdraw money
successfully from the account the balance must be
greater than the amount of money to be taken out of that
account. The application will prompt the user to enter the
account user name and password. If the user name is predefined
it then asks for the password. It checks the password.
The user has 3 tries to get the password correct. Otherwise, the
account will be locked and no transactions can be
done. Once the user name and password entered correctly, the
application displays the main menu to choose between
3 transactions: withdraw (W), deposit (D), and balance checking
(C) or exit (E). After the user finishes its
transaction, the application must display the main menu again
and user enters (E) to close the program.
The user name of the 3 users must be stored in an array
“USERSNAME”
The password of the 3 users must be stored in an array
“PASSWORD”
The 3 accounts balance must be stored in an array “BALANCE”
USERNAME PASSWORD
BALANCE
User0 Password0 Balance0

Here is how the application looks like:
AMERICAN INDIAN. CULTURE AAD RESEARCHJOURNAL
30:2 (2006) 1-15
Unrestricted Territory: Gender, Two
Spirits, and Louise Erdrich's The Last
Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
DEIRDRE KEENAN
Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe,
to distinguish
us from them. A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a
steep edge.
A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the
emotional

residue of an unnatural boundary.... The prohibited and
forbidden are its
inhabitants.
-Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands: The New Mestiza
One night, in Louise Erdrich's novel, The Last Report on the
Miracles at Little
No Horse, the main character, Father Damien Modeste, now
more than one
hundred years old, begins one of his final letters to the pope,
this time to
reveal the secret of his identity. In it, he recalls the flood that
swept Agnes
DeWitt away from her deceased lover's farm and the idea that
carried her
north to the reservation at Little No Horse, confessing, "I now
believe in that
river I drowned in spirit, but revived. I lost an old life and
gained a new."1
Even before the flood, Agnes had contemplated the "absurd
fantasy" of a
new missionary life after meeting the other priest-the first
Father Damien
Modeste-who was traveling to his resented assignment to
"missionize the
Indians," where, he says, "the devil works with shrewd
persistence" and God
must enter "the dark mind of the savage." 2 When she emerges
from the flood
to find the priest's dead body caught in a branch, Agnes
"already knew."3 She
puts on the priest's clothes, cuts her hair with a pocketknife,
buries the body
with her shorn hair ("the keeper of her old life"), and "begins to

walk north
into the land of the Ojibwe." 4 For the next eighty years, Father
Damien marks
the day of his arrival on the reservation as the beginning of "the
great lie that
Deirdre Keenan is an associate professor of English at Carroll
College in Waukesha,
Wisconsin. She has written on ethical and practical issues of
non-Native work
in American Studies and is currently working on the
overlapping stories of the
Anishinaabeg and Irish immigrants in Michigan.
I
AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH JOURNAL
was her life, the true lie . . . the most sincere lie a person could
ever tell."5
That "true lie" is an identity that transgresses the boundaries of
mainstream
gender norms, an identity that is accepted and honored in the
unrestricted
territory of the Ojibwe culture.
Mainstream culture, however, is a restricted territory for those
who do not
adhere to its strictly constructed sex-gender norms. In the
United States (and
throughout the world), women and men cross sex-gender
borders in danger
and secrecy, often at personal and professional risk, and always

against the sanc-
tion of mainstream society. 6 Even in lesbian and gay
communities, transgender
people are often reluctantly accepted or overtly excluded. 7 Yet
it is estimated
that as many as one in five hundred people experience intense
transgender
feelings and ultimately cross the border of sex-gender norms
through cross-
dressing, hormone treatment, and sex reassignment surgery
(SRS).8-9 Many
more with transgender feelings remain within a restricted
territory monitored
by mainstream society and unable to cross its constructed
boundaries into
sex-gender identity freedom. My purpose here is to examine
Louise Erdrich's
representation of Father Damien in The Last Report on the
Miracles at Little No
Horse in the context of mainstream attitudes about transgender
identities and
Native American gender systems. In this context, Erdrich's
novel provides a
theory and practice of gender identity formation that challenges
mainstream
concepts and the intolerance that rises from those concepts.
Transgender is an inclusive term for any individuals who
transgress socially
constructed gender "norms" or transgress sex identities assigned
at birth.' 0
Because of their perceived transgression, transgender people
face difficult
choices in the United States. SRS costs tens of thousands of
dollars and is not

covered by health insurance.II Those who seek counseling can
be diagnosed
with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) according to the American
Psychiatric
Association (APA), a label of "abnormality" that can severely
limit access to
employment and future health care coverage.12 Notably, the
APA identifies
the prevalence of GID as only one in thirty thousand, a blatant
underesti-
mate that conceals the reality of transgender prevalence.' 3
According to the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), only three states have
explicit anti-
discrimination laws that protect transgender individuals.14 Only
seven states
include the transgender population in hate crimes.15
Antidiscrimination
employment laws on the basis of disability exclude transgender,
despite its
official identification as a disorder because it is "not a protected
disability."' 6
And only recently have some courts begun to interpret state
laws against sex
discrimination as including transgender people.17 Events such
as local pride
celebrations create temporary sites of liberation and limited
protection for
transgender people, and neighborhoods in some large urban
areas provide
territories for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people
(LGBT),
although these borderlands are vulnerable to acts of harassment
and violence
against the LGBT population.

The ultimate foundation of 'this restricted territory for
transgender
people is the Western-constructed sex-gender dichotomy, which
is based on
an assumption of only two sexes assigned at birth on the basis
of the body
with commensurate gender expectations. The hegemony of this
constructed
2
dichotomy is so powerfully reinforced by cultural institutions of
law, science,
religion, education, and social practice that few in mainstream
culture are
willing to or capable of imagining a multiple sex-gender system
that refuses
to see anyone as "deviant."
The sad thing about this refusal to recognize the constructed
nature of the
Western sex-gender dichotomy is that it suppressed older
traditions among
many Native American, First Nation, and indigenous cultures
that recog-
nized, accepted, and even honored multiple gender identities.
The earliest
European colonizers observed those Native traditions, and
anthropologists
documented individuals they identified as Berdaches and
Amazons-terms
that many Native Americans now regard as "inappropriate and
insulting."1

8
Yet colonial culture incorporated none of this Native knowledge
into main-
stream concepts of sex, gender, sexuality, or community.
Despite pervasive suppression by mainstream culture, many
American
Indian people and groups have maintained and recuperated their
variant sex-
gender traditions. Many tribes have alternative gender
categories and terms in
their own languages. In Changing Ones: Third and Fourth
Genders in Native North
America, Will Roscoe identifies more than eighty North
American groups
with documented cases that span a 450-year period since
colonization.19 Jim
Elledge has identified more than one hundred alternative sex-
gender myths
among Native American groups. 20 Berdache and the less
common feminized
term, Amazon, have been replaced by the pan-Native American
term, Two
Spirit, established by Native Americans. 21 According to
Anguksuar, a Yup'ik
Indian activist and artist, the term was officially adopted in
1990, at the third
annual spiritual gathering of gay and lesbian Native people in
Winnipeg,
Canada. 22 As Anguksuar explains, the term in no way
determines "genital
activity"; Two Spirit determines "the qualities that define a
person's social role
and spiritual gifts." 23 According to Beverly Little Thunder

(Standing Rock
Lakota), Two Spirit is a term of honor that resists the Western
"label of desig-
nated other." 24 It also represents variant gender traditions that
include third
and fourth, and perhaps fifth and sixth, gender categories.
Let me briefly acknowledge the problem of language in talking
about
these traditions. As Alice Kehoe points out, the term Two Spirit
is not adequate
in its translation because of its unintended but implied
dichotomy associ-
ated with the Western binary. 25 Beatrice Medicine (Standing
Rock Lakota),
an honored elder and anthropologist who recently passed away,
wrote that
the term is "not intended to be translated from English to native
languages"
because it "changes the common meaning [the term] has
acquired by self-
identified two-spirit Native Americans."2 6 Historical
documentation of cases
and current discussion of Two Spirit traditions remain tied
linguistically to the
binary sex-gender categories in describing, for example, "men
acting women"
and "women acting men" even though they represent distinct
gender catego-
ries. Beatrice Medicine also cautioned those who use the term
Two Spirit to
appreciate its association with sacredness and to understand
what that means
within Native American and First Nation communities.

27
Louise Erdrich's novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little
No Horse
provides valuable ways to understand multiple sex-gender
systems that resist
3Unrestricted Territory
the exclusionary, arbitrary, and judgmental nature of the
Western dichotomy
and what Anguksuar identifies as "the intellectually and
spiritually backward
view that only two genders exist."28 In a system of variant
gender categories,
no one would be forced to live in stealth within the confines of
a restricted
territory or need to cross unsafe borders to claim a personal
gender identity.
A LITERARYJOURNEY ACROSS CULTURAL BORDERS
In "Religion and Gender in The Last Report on the Miracles at
Little No Horse,"
Maria Orban and Alan Velie locate their discussion of Father
Damien's sex-
gender identity in three primary contexts: in literary traditions
that play with
characterization, postmodern gender theories, and Native
American trickster
traditions.2 9 Each of these contexts illuminates Erdrich's

treatment of Damien
in Last Report, but each isolates Damien from Two Spirit
traditions of gender
variance and the related social roles historically defined within
Native American
cultures. In situating Damien within. literary traditions that play
with charac-
terization, Orban and Velie cite Erdrich's non-Native influences
and her skill
in morphing characters that reappear in multiple stories.3 0 This
perspective
helps to distinguish the radical gender alteration that occurs in
Damien from
Erdrich's other character changes. But this context also limits
gender variance
to a literary device and ignores the distinct roles it created
within American
Indian societies. In situating discussion of Damien in
postmodern gender
theories, Orban and Velie emphasize gender as construction,
performance,
and social perspective, as represented in work by Judith Butler
and Michel
Foucault.31 This discussion effectively reveals the illusion of a
fixed sex-gender
identity location or stability. But locating Damien in this
context implies theo-
retical insight that displaces a system of sex-gender variance
among Native
American cultures that operated long before modern and
postmodern theory.
Discussions of Damien as a trickster or shape-shifting figure
foregrounds a
distinctly cultural role often associated with gender variance in
Damien's char-
acterization, even though Damien is non-Native. However, these

discussions
also identify Nanapush, Leopolda, and Fleur as tricksters and
shape-shifters, a
multiplication that diffuses the meanings of those terms.32
Damien, I argue, embodies Two Spirit traditions shared among
many
Native American cultures, including the Ojibwe-Anishinaabeg
represented
in Erdrich's novel. Placing discussion within this context helps
to recuperate
Native American understandings of gender identity formation
and the trans-
formative potential of those traditions. Agnes's new
identification as Father
Damien is no mere whim where she chooses to pass as a
Catholic priest merely
to enter the land of the Ojibwe. Nor is she transgendered in the
sense of
feeling that her female body is a mistake of birth that belies a
fully masculine
psyche (this is admittedly an oversimplification of the
complexities in trans-
gender identity formation). As Father Damien, Agnes becomes
both male and
female, masculine and feminine, and in claiming this identity
she responds to
a spiritual (not a religious) calling. Admittedly the assertion of
a genuine Two
Spirit nature is problematic because Father Damien is born
Agnes DeWitt,
a white woman, into a culture of gender dichotomy (a point I
will return to
4

later). But Damien's refusal to conform to this cultural
hegemony and his
liberation under the influence of the Ojibwe people demonstrate
gender
alterity within a multiple sex-gender social system.
33
I propose that Agnes's background as daughter, nun, and lover
leads to
the discovery of her genuine Two Spirit identity. Part of that
discovery-long
before she imagines herjourney into the land of the Ojibwe-is
Agnes's recog-
nition of the constructed nature of gender. She realizes that
even as a woman,
"the heart of her gender is stretched, pounded, molded, and
tempered for its
hot task from the age of two."3 4 For Agnes, then, her
gendering in the forge
of binary oppositions, her identification as "woman" is no more
natural than
her forged identification as Father Damien.
As Damien travels north to Little No Horse, she notes the
respect
afforded her maleness and experiences "an ease within her own
mind, she'd
never felt before." 15 When Agnes crosses the borders of the
reservation, "she
felt a largeness move through her" and already believed that
"she had done
the right thing. Father Damien Modeste had arrived .... The true
Modeste

who was supposed to arrive-none other. No one else." 36
The text's language reflects her transition from Agnes to Father
Damien-
a transgendering-in shifting pronouns (often within a single
sentence). In
her first official act, for example, when she performs a mass for
the nuns,
the text reads, "She had only to say the first words and all
followed, ordered,
instinctive," and "in the silence between the parts of the ritual,
Father Damien
prayed for those women in his charge" (italics added). 37 There
is, however,
no sudden reformation of Father Damien's gender identity. Later
that same
evening Damien prepares a list of ten "Rules to Assist My
Transformation"
and begins to replace the learned gesturies of womanhood with
those of
the masculine. The next day, when Agnes is forced to cope with
"the misery
of concealing the exasperating monthly flow," she suddenly
feels "an eerie
rocking between two genders." 38 In his early years at Little No
Horse, Father
Damien struggles with the hardships suffered by the Ojibwe,
with the miseries
of his early misguided efforts and their terrible consequences,
and with the
emotional residue of transgressing the binary gender dictates of
mainstream
culture. Here the text reads, "These days, Agnes and Father
Damien became
one indivisible person in prayer. That poor, divided, human
priest enlarged

and smoothed into the person of Father Damien."39 At the same
time, "it
came to her that both Sister Cecelia and Agnes were as heavily
manufactured
... as was Father Damien." 40 The priest wonders, "Between
these two, where
was the real self ... what sifting of identity was she?"41
AN UNRESTRICTED TERRITORY
I have briefly suggested the ways that Louise Erdrich's Father
Damien Modeste
represents a Two Spirit concept characteristic of shared Native
American
traditions that displace the Western sex-gender dichotomy. This
assertion
immediately raises the question: How can a white Catholic
missionary
represent Native American tradition? The representation of
traditional
gender variance is not solely dependent on the subject of Father
Damien.
Unrestricted Territory 5
More importantly, the representation substantially depends on
ways the
Anishinaabeg at Little No Horse perceive him and recognize his
Two Spirit
status. That is, Two Spirit traditions represent an understanding
of gender
variance and familiar categories to absorb various identities.

When the Ojibwe
man first meets Father Damien at the train stop, for example,
Kashpaw imme-
diately perceives a "girlish openness" in the priest. And during
much of the
journey into the heart of Little No Horse, Kashpaw maintains a
thoughtful
silence as he considers the priest's gender:
[H]e sensed something unusual about the priest from the first.
Something w'rong.' The priest was clearly not right, too
womanly.
Perhaps, he thought, here was a man like the famous Wishkob,
the
Sweet, who had seduced many other men and finally joined the
family
of a great war chief as a wife, where he lived until old, well
loved,
as one of the women. Kashpaw himself had addressed Wishkob
as
grandmother. The priest is unusual, but then, who among the
zhaaga-
naashiwag [white people] is not strange.
42
Kashpaw's sense of "something wrong," of something "clearly
not right," signals
no disapproval. It reveals only a discrepancy between Damien's
presentation
as a Catholic priest and his gender as "too womanly."
Kashpaw's quick associa-
tion with the famous Wishkob the Sweet signals a ready context
for Kashpaw's
understanding of Damien's gender identification. That Kashpaw
recalls his

own address to the "grandmother" implies his easy acceptance
of the priest's
gender variance. It also indicates the.honored role of the Two
Spirit among
the Ojibwe as one "who was well loved." The reference to his
seduction of
many men and his marriage to the great war chief indicates
acceptance of
same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage. Most
importantly, Kashpaw's
association reveals Father Damien's potential Two Spirit status
among the
Ojibwe, a status independent of blood quotient.
At their first meeting, Fleur, too, sees an "unmanly priest," and
Nanapush
finds him "oddly feminine."43 Never, in these initial meetings,
do the Ojibwe
confront the priest about his gender identity. In fact, Father
Damien spends
a decade believing that no one knows his secret because he has
learned to
conceal his femaleness. So he is completely caught off guard
during a game
of chess with his old friend when Nanapush suddenly asks,
"What are you...
a man priest or a woman priest?" 44 For Nanapush, the question
about gender
identity is mere tactic to distract Father Damien from the chess
game so that he
can claim victory. But for Damien, the question opens up years
of suppressed
anxiety and emotional residue from the deviance of passing.
Seeing the
priest's "terror and confusion," however, Nanapush gently
continues, asking

Damien, "Why... are you pretending to be a man priest?" 45
Their conversation reveals the long Ojibwe tradition of
recognizing
variant gender identities beyond dichotomy and, more notably,
respecting
them. Nanapush tells Father Damien, "[W]e used to talk about
it, Kashpaw
and myself, but when we noticed that you never mentioned it,
we spoke of this
to no one else." 46 Still Nanapush expresses his curiosity by
asking, "Are you
6
Unrestricted Territory
a female Wishkob? My old friend thought so at first, assumed
you went and
became a four-legged to please another man, but that's not true.
Inside that
robe, you are definitely a woman." 47 Grappling with his own
self-conscious-
ness, Damien tries to escape back into the chess game, but
Nanapush pursues
the conversation; "So you're not a woman-acting man, you're a
man-acting
woman." 48 Nanapush's conjectures reveal the Ojibwe
assumption of third
and fourth gender categories, as well as additional categories,
which include
gay men and, by implication, lesbians. They also reaffirm
Damien's accepted
status within the Two Spirit tradition among the Ojibwe at

Little No Horse.
Moreover, Nanapush's curiosity to understand Father Damien
and his
assurance that "when we noticed that you never mentioned it,
we spoke of it to
no one else" illustrate the respect (rather than scorn in
mainstream culture)
awarded to identification within the Two Spirit tradition. And
his note that
he and his Ojibwe wife, Margaret, remember only a few man-
acting women
such as Father Damien emphasizes the role of elders as cultural
memory in
maintaining suppressed traditions. In Men as Women, Women
as Men: Changing
Gender in Native American Cultures, Sabine Lang points out
that often traditions
of gender variance were forgotten, denigrated, or repressed with
the "massive
impact of Western culture" and the Christianization process. 49
Notably,
the only Ojibwe person on the reservation who scorns Father
Damien and
attempts to blackmail him on the basis of gender is Leopolda, a
converted
religious zealot turned nun. All of the other Ojibwe respect
Father Damien's
gender identification and his apparent desire for secrecy,
necessitated by the
intolerance of the Catholic Church and mainstream culture.
In contrast, the outsider, Father Jude, a papal emissary sent to
investi-
gate Leopolda's background, has no cultural frame of reference
to absorb

the gender alterity he too senses in Father Damien. Here in one
of his first
conversations with Father Damien, Father Jude experiences
sudden insight
but immediately dismisses it: "In that instant, a strange thing
happened. He
saw inhabiting the same cassock as the priest, an old woman....
He shook his
head, craned forward, but no, there was Damien again." 50
Later Father Jude
again senses a gender discrepancy when "a troubling sensation
once more
came upon him .. . a problem of perception. A distinct uncanny
sense he
could only name in one way" (146). Again FatherJude forces his
perception
into the familiar dichotomy by asking Father Damien if he has a
twin. 51 For
Father Jude the possibility of a female twin could account for a
perceived
gender discrepancy with the priest's male body. Father Jude's
nagging suspi-
cion of some unidentifiable secrecy surrounding the priest
resolves itself
when he discovers Damien's name inadvertently recorded as
father/parent
on a birth certificate. For Jude, the assumption of violated
celibacy makes
far more sense than gender variants he cannot begin to imagine
or tolerate
within mainstream culture and the institution of the
priesthood.52
Similarly, when Father Gregory, another outsider, discovers the
female
body concealed under Damien's cassock and finds their

attraction irresist-
ible, he pleads with Agnes to run away with him, marry, and
have children.
But Damien refuses by explaining, "I cannot leave who I am."
53 For Gregory,
angered by the refusal, Damien's gender is not negotiable. "You
are a woman,"
7
he insists, invoking the mainstream dichotomy. 54 When
Damien asserts, "I am
a priest... I am nothing but a priest," Gregory lashes out at
Damien's gender
transgression in "the worst way he could summon.... You're a
sacrilege." 55
Gregory's anger reflects the dominant hegemony of a sex-gender
system that
refuses variance within a Catholic context that prohibits female
priesthood and
in a social context that scripts specific roles for women and men
and condemns
deviance. 56 Gregory's condemnation demonstrates the
consequence of that
refusal. As Will Roscoe points out in Changing Ones, "When
one believes that
sex is given by nature in-two incommensurable forms, the
attitude toward that
which is non-binary shifts from ambivalence and awe to horror
and scorn."

After the affair with Father Gregory when Damien spirals into
suicidal
despair, Nanapush provides the traditions that can reconcile the
priest's
divided self and prepares a sweat lodge. Here, surrounded by
Ojibwe men,
Damien finds peace. Although the priest acknowledged that
"according to
Church doctrine it was wrong for a priest to worship god in so
alien space,
Agnes simply found herself comforted." 57 She emerges a
recuperated Father
Damien who "not only loved the people but also the very
thingness of the
world," signified by a language "unprejudiced by gender
distinctions.'"5 8
Damien re-signs the world in Ojibwe terms as inanimate or
animate, "a
quality harboring a spirit," which resists binary reduction
between alive or
dead, for "amid the protocols of [this] language, there is room
for personal
preference." 59 As Will Roscoe writes, "As long as the language
for talking
about gender is confined to mutually exclusive binary terms,"
those who
are different are reduced to "defective, counterfeit, or imitation
men and
women." 60 Anishinaabemowen (Ojibwe language) provides
terms that refuse a
gender dichotomy bound to the biological body and instead
admits multiple
variations freed from the body and animated by spirit.
Moreover, his inclu-
sion in an exclusively male ceremony shows that the Ojibwe

men identify and
accept Damien's Two Spirit status. 61
GENDER ALTERITY AS POWER62
At the end of the conversation I referred to earlier, when he
finally confronts
the priest about his gender, Nanapush concludes, "[T] hat is
what your spirits
instructed you to do, so you must do it. Your spirits must be
powerful to
require such a sacrifice." 6-3 Nanapush's understanding of a
spiritually moti-
vated gender identity reflects one of the most important
elements in Two
Spirit traditions. As Lester Brown writes in Spiritual Warriors,
"gender" in many
Native American cultures is a spiritual calling, "not determined
by a person's
anatomy."64 According to Brown, "individuals who are
spiritually called into
gender variance are believed to have special powers ... because
of the differ-
ence."65 Duane Champagne also emphasizes the "sacredness of
alternative
gender" founded on an individual's personal mission. 66 In
Louise Erdrich's
novel, Agnes believes there was something spiritually ordained
in the moment
she emerges from the flood and puts on a dead priest's cassock
to cross into
the Little No Horse reservation. Among the Ojibwe, Damien is
able to realize
a true Two Spirit identity.
8

Another element among Two Spirit traditions is a common role
as
mediators. Will Roscoe explains a distinction from concepts of
androgyny that
function only as "a mediating device in the essentialism of
binaries." 6 7 Within
the system of gender dichotomy, he asserts, "androgyny can
never be the onto-
logical basis for a social identity."68 In this system, "What
disappears," Roscoe
states, is "the materiality of the third [gender]-the actual roles,
identities,
and lifestyles based on those mediating devices." 69
Historically, among Native
cultures, he notes, "individuals seen as bridging genders were
often elected to
perform other mediations as well."
70
Father Damien performs many mediations. As a Catholic
missionary,
he mediates between Christianity and Ojibwe sacred beliefs and
practices.
But it is not to bring the Ojibwe to Christianity (for he had
come to think of
conversion as a "most loving form of destruction"). 71 Rather,
Father Damien's
mediation reveals the limits of Christian orthodoxy, the
recuperative potential
of Ojibwe spirituality, and the possibility of a spirituality that
arises from two
traditions. Ultimately, however, Damien personally rejects

Christian dogma,
including its concepts of evil and redemption, choosing, in the
end, to enter
the Ojibwe heaven.
72
In developing an Ojibwe dictionary, Father Damien also
mediates
between mainstream and traditional Ojibwe cultures. But again
his transla-
tions serve to displace mainstream concepts with Ojibwe
meanings. When
Father Jude asks him, for example, about rumors of scandals on
the reserva-
tion, Damien says that he "prefers to think of them as profound
exchanges
of human love." 73 He points out to FatherJude that "the Ojibwe
word for the
human vagina is derived from the word for 'earth,"' and adds, "a
profound
connection, don't you think?" 74 Surprised by Damien's
apparent lack of
moral judgment, Father Jude asks if he "condones such irregular
behavior,"
a question that reveals mainstream puritanical attitudes toward
sexuality
and the body. Damien answers, "I do not condone it ... I cherish
such occur-
rences, or help my charges to at least" (italics added).75 In his
mediation
between Father Jude's mainstream brand of sexual morality and
his own
understanding under Ojibwe influence, Damien rejects Jude's
simplistic
binary system-right and wrong, black and white, male and

female. Life as
a priest among the Ojibwe and'his proficiency in
Aniýhinaabemowen has
fundamentally restructured Damien's sense of reality, wherein
truth is subjec-
tive, matters of right and wrong are always gray, and the only
real, immoral
actions are those that hurt others.
76
In each of his mediations between mainstream and Ojibwe
culture-in
matters of spirituality, faith, conversion, language, culture, and
morality-
Father Damien provides not merely opposing opinions on
mainstream issues
but new meanings. Similarly, in matters of gender, Native
American traditions
provide new meanings. As Will Roscoe writes, the Two Spirit
tradition "is
not merely a matter of different judgments of the same
phenomenon, but
completely different perceptions of what that phenomenon
is."77 Likewise,
Louise Erdrich's transformation of Father Damien Modeste out
of Agnes
DeWitt (or Agnes out of Father Damien in Love Medicine and
Tracks, Erdrich's
earlier novels) provides a close look at gender variance.7 8
Erdrich's novel also

provokes reconsiderations about what sex and gender mean and
how they
operate in identity formation; why mainstream culture guards
the borders of
gender dichotomy and punishes transgression; and why
mainstream society
continues to endorse ideas that promote intolerance and
violence against
individuals perceived to transgress those ideas.
One additional example that illuminates Two Spirit traditions
occurs in
the context of Father Damien's retelling the story of Leopolda's
genealogy.7 9
The cruelty that marks Leopolda's nature begins three
generations earlier
in a feud that develops between a hunting party of Ojibwe and
French
traders, which included her ancestors, and a Bawaanug (Lakota)
hunting
party. To avert a battle, Leopolda's grandfather, a French trader,
challenges
any Bawaan man to best his wife (Leopolda's Ojibwe
grandmother) in a
running contest,,with death to the loser. The Bawaanug choose
one of their
fastest runners, a winkte, a "woman-man," an ikwe-inini in
Ojibwe, after a long
debate as to whether the winkte can count as a man for the
purpose of the
race. 80 Although several Ojibwe initially contest the winkte's
participation
due to his female spirit, others conclude that "as the winkte

would run with
legs that grew down along either side of a penis.., he was
enough of a male
to suit the terms."
8'
The passage reveals three characteristics of Two Spirit
traditions. First, the
inclusion of the Lakota term,, winkte, and the Ojibwe term,
ikwe-inini, shows
that both cultures recognize a third gender category. Second, the
debate
occurs only for the purpose of the race, suggesting that sex-
gender categoriza-
tion is not fixed, limited, or generally required. Third, no one in
either party
reacts when the winkte, adorned with a tortoiseshell hand mirror
around his
neck and eyes rimmed with smoky black, shrugs off his deer
hide dress to
reveal a body "astonishingly pure and lovely, in nothing but a
white woman's
lace-trimmed pantalets."18 2 The lack of reaction to the
winkte's appearance
suggests the familiarity of cross-dressing in multiple gender
practice.
THE ETHICS OF CROSSING BORDERS
In the first chapter in the anthology Two Spirit People, the
editors address the
motive of research into Native American gender diversity and
sexuality.8 3 They
acknowledge the ethical implications of writing about Native
American alter-

native gender categories when some "American Indian scholars,
academics,
political leaders, and others are not sympathetic and in fact
would prefer the
issue be dropped."84 Beatrice Medicine and Beverly Little
Thunder, among
many others, have commented on the kinds of discrimination,
isolation,
alienation, and punishment many Native Americans suffer
within their own
cultures because of attitudes transposed from mainstream
culture. 85 Beatrice
Medicine has also raised concerns about the romanticization and
misrep-
resentation of Native American gender and sexuality.8 6 Others
address the
appropriation of Native traditions for personal gain and the
stereotyping of
Native icons of liberation. These are important considerations if
we are to learn
anything about respect from Native American concepts of sex,
gender, and
sexuality and, at the same time, avoid neocolonialism.
10
At the same time, Duane Champagne argues that "Native
traditions provide
cultural resources for the reevaluation of sexuality and gender
relations."
8 7
"The gift of sacred being," marked by gender variance,

Champagne says, "can
be carried as a gift to the world."8 8 Champagne asserts a
responsibility even to
grant access to Two Spirit knowledge and wisdom to others
whose traditions
are not so inclusive.8 9 Louise Erdrich's representation of
Father Damien and
the Ojibwe people of Little No Horse provides that access.
Erdrich's novel cannot provide a panacea for the gender troubles
in
mainstream culture. It is fiction, after all. In the endnotes to
The Last Report,
Erdrich anticipates her readers' skepticism about the possibility
of "a lifelong
gender disguise" and cites a work of nonfiction on a transgender
subject.
Erdrich also comments on the source of her fiction,
acknowledging a voice
that spoke to her in dreams, as if mediating the stories. She
writes, "I feel sure
they originated in my own mind, those stories .... Yet
sometimes, as I scruti-
nize the handwriting in those early drafts, I wonder. Who is the
writer? Who
is the voice?" 90 Deliberately confusing the border between
fiction and nonfic-
tion, Erdrich intimates the transformative potential of fiction,
the power of
stories to direct our lives.
Just as American Indian wisdom reshapes mainstream
understanding
of storytelling, history, spirituality, kinship, environment, and

community,
it can also reshape concepts of sex, gender, and identity. Still, a
society that
legislates discrimination against the transgendered is a long way
from a
society whose legislation prohibits discrimination, and this is a
far cry from
a culture that even without legislation values gender variance.
In the current
political struggles between those who advocate for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and
transgender rights and those who would amend suppressive and
exclusive
legislation, Native American Two Spirit traditions-whether
represented in
fiction or nonfiction-could mediate a vision where all
individuals' gender
identities and sexualities could be honored.
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to several people including
Sidney Martin
(Potawatomi), George Martin (Ojibwe), Shannon Martin
(Ojibwe-Potawatomi),
and Lorraine, Dave, and Carly Shananaquet (Ojibwe-
Potawatomi) for their
friendship and trust, and for passing on the teachings necessary
to my under-
standing of Anishinaabe culture. Also to my friend, Merry
Wiesner-Hanks,
who provided intellectual and financial support and
encouragement that
made this project possible; and my mother, Mary Aileen
Keenan, whose Irish

ancestors first led me to the land of the Anishinaabeg.
NOTES
1. Louise Erdrich, Last Report on the Miracles at Little No
Horse (New York: Harper
Collins, 2001), 41.
2. Ibid., 35-36.
3. Ibid., 44.
4. Ibid., 44-45.
5. Ibid., 61.
6. Blackwood and Wieringa's FemaleDesires and Leslie
Feinberg's Transgender Warriors
are among many texts that look at transgender roles across
international cultures.
7. At the recent Women's World Congress June 2005 in Seoul,
Korea, a session
on the young lesbian activist movement erupted in heated
argument over including
transgendered women in lesbian activist groups, reflecting a
recent position among
some lesbian separatists to exclude and attack transgender
interests as a threat to a
lesbian agenda.

8. Transgenderfeelings refer to any type of feeling that one's
body and/or sex
assigned at birth is incommensurate with one's psychological
and emotional sense of
self. They are by no means limited to a desire for reassignment
as the opposite sex.
"9. Lynn Conway, "How Frequently Does Transsexualism
Occur?," http://www.
lynnconway.com (accessed 26 May 2005). Lynn Conway is
Professor Emerita at the
University of Michigan and a male to female (MtF) transsexual,
whose personal expe-
rience and professional research provides an excellent source on
transgender and
transsexual issues.
10. The term, transgender, is sometimes intended to include
those who transgress
heterosexuality (i.e., homosexuals).
11. I want to emphasize here that transgender is not limited to
the desire for sex
reassignment or to the notion that only two genders exist.
12. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4rth
ed., rev., DSM-1V-TR
(Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000),
576. The APA defines
GID as "a strong and persistent cross-gender identification,
which is the desire to be,
or the insistence that one is, of the other sex." Notably, the APA
limits the definition
of GID to gender association with the opposite sex, instead of
considering the broader

and more inclusive definitions given by transgender individuals.
13. Ibid., 579. The APA cites no prevalence studies in the
United States or
considers the wide spectrum of transgender expression; its
estimate of one in thirty
thousand is based on European studies of individuals who
sought SRS.
14. Nan D. Hunter, Courtney G.Joslin, and Sharon M.
McGowan, eds., The Rights
of Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transgender People: An
American Civil Liberties Union
Handbook (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press,
2004). The three states
with explicit protections for transgender people are Minnesota
(1993), Rhode Island
(2001), and New Mexico (2003), 172-73.
15. Ibid., 172. Those seven states with hate crimes amended to
include trans-
gender people are Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Missouri,
New Mexico, Pennsylvania,
and Vermont.
16. Ibid., 172-91. The ACLU handbook on LGBT rights outlines
in detail what
legal protections do and do not cover transgender people.
17. Ibid., 174.
18. Sue Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds.
Two Spirit People:
Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality
(Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1997), 3.

19. Will Roscoe, The Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders
in Native North
America (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), 213-22.
12
20. Jim Elledge, ed., Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender
Myths from the Arapaho
to the Zuni (New York: Peter Lang, 2002).
21. In Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Source
(Boston: Beacon Press,
1991), Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo) explains her
understanding of pan-Native
spiritual traditions, writing, "I have believed for some time that
the similarities in world
view and spiritual understanding are marked because the
supernaturals that live on this
continent with us possess marked similarities among
themselves, and so their teachings are
similar, varying because of locale and because of the language
and histories of the various
people they instruct" (205). She goes on to assert that the
emphasis on distinctly different
Native cultures is colonially motivated to divide American
Indian people (205-6).
22. Jacobs, Two Spirit People, 221.
23. Ibid., 221.
24. Ibid., 203.
25. Ibid., 269.
26. Ibid., 147.

27. Ibid., 148.
28. Ibid., 218.
29. Maria Orban and Alan Velie, "Religion and Gender in The
Last Report on
the Miracles at Little No Horse," European Review of Native
American Studies 17, no. 2
(2003), 27-34. For further discussion, see also Thomas Matchie,
"Miracles at Little No
Horse: Louise Erdrich's Answer to Sherman Alexie's
Reservation Blues," North Dakota
Quarterly 70, no. 2 (Spring 2003).
30. Ibid., 27.
31. Ibid., 28.
32. Ibid., 27-28. See also Kate McCafferty, "Generative
Adversity: Shapeshifting,
Pauline/Leopolda in Tracks and Love Medicine," American
Indian Quarterly 21, no. 4 (Fall
1997), 729-51.
33. Throughout my discussion, I employ the masculine pronoun
in reference to
the character as Father Damien. Social protocol honors a
transgendered individual's
choice of gender identification (or without gender
identification) regardless of the
gender assigned at birth.
34. Erdrich, Miracles at Little No Horse, 18.
35. Ibid., 62.
36. Ibid., 65.

37. Ibid, 68.
38. Ibid., 78.
39. Ibid., 109.
40. Ibid, 76.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 64.
43. Ibid., 85.
44. Ibid., 230.
45. Ibid., 231.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid., 231. Nanapush's initial impression that Damien may
be one who
"became a four-legged to please a man" is a reference to same-
sex sexual rela-
tions, which constitutes its own identity category. The
description again implies no
14 AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE AND RESEARCH
JOURNAL
disapproval within the Ojibwe culture, which views humans and
animals as spiritually
equal members of the creation.
48. Ibid., 232.
49. Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing
Gender in Native American
Cultures (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 107.
50. Erdrich, Last Report, 139.

51. Ibid., 146.
52. Orban and Velie note that Jude "cannot recognize what he
sees because his
perceptions are governed by his expectations" of a man in a
cassock (29). I suggest that
his expectations are hegemonic and deeply rooted in the
Western gender dichotomy,
which is his only frame of reference.
53. Ibid., 206.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid., 207.
56. Orban and Velie argue that Damien is unique among female
characters in her
rejection of scripted gender roles. They suggest that other
female characters desire
"manly" displays by men, citing Pauline's mother (30). Their
assertion on this point
fails to recognize the traditionally equal status of women and
men among the Ojibwe
(especially before white influence) or to consider Fleur and
Margaret's fiery strength
in this context.
57. Ibid., 215.
58. Ibid., 215 and 257.
59. Ibid., 257.
60. Roscoe, Changing Ones, 210.
61. I am indebted for Anishinaabe teachings to Sidney Martin
(Potawatomi),
George Martin (Ojibwe), Shannon Martin (Ojibwe-Potawatomi),
Lorraine, Dave, and
Carly Shananaquet (Ojibwe-Potawatomi), Edward Benton-

Benai, and the people of
the Midewiwin Lodge. As it has been taught to me, the Ojibwe
sweat-lodge ceremony
does not exclude women (although the Ojibwe view menses as
women's natural
ceremony of purification). Rather, sweat-lodge ceremonies are
conventionally gender
segregated, so the fact that Damien enters with men shows an
acceptance of his chosen
identity within a variant gender system.
62. Alterity as power is a concept Gloria Anzaldua discusses
throughout Borderlands.
Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands: The New Mestiza, 2nd ed. (San
Francisco: Aunt Lute
Books, 1999).
64. Lester Brown, ed. Two Spirit People: American Indian
Lesbian Women and Gay Men
(New York: Harrington Park Press, 1997), 5.
65. Ibid., 10.
66. Ibid., xix.
68. Ibid., 208.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid.
72. Orban and Velie assert that Father Damien "remains a
Catholic while
adopting beliefs of the Chippewa religion" (31). Ann-Janine
Morey also discusses

Damien's merging of religion systems, in her review of the
novel, Christian Century
118, no. 26 (September 2001), 36, "Boost," http://0-
webl7.epnet.com.piocat.cc.edu
(accessed 5 January 2006).
73. Ibid., 134.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.
76. Ibid., 135. See also Kate McCafferty for further discussion
on the ambiguity of
Chippewa binary concepts.
78. In Tracks (New York: Henry Holt and Co, 1988), published
thirteen years
before the 2001 publication of Last Report on the Miracles at
Little No Horse, Louise
Erdrich tells the stories of the same characters, focused on the
year Father Damien
arrives on the reservation. In Tracks, Father Damien is
identified only as a male priest,
but owns subtle personal traits that anticipate the revelation of a
Two Spirit identity
in the later novel.
80. Ibid., 153-54.
81. Ibid., 154.
82. Ibid.,. 155. Although they acknowledge Erdrich's

representation of the winkte
within "a scale of degrees of maleness, not an either/or binary
opposition" and
that "biology alone is not the decisive factor [in gender
identity]," Orban and Velie
mistakenly characterize, I believe, the winkte as a "social
construction based on the
perception of negative female stereotypes from a male
perspective" (31), a character-
ization that reifies the binary opposition and ignores Two Spirit
traditions.
84. Ibid., 26. Elsewhere I have written about a broad range of
ethical issues
in "Trespassing Native Ground: Problems of Non-Native Work
in American Indian
Studies," M/MLA, Fall/Winter 2000-2001, 3-4, no. 33-34, 179-
89.
85. Ibid., 147 and 206.
87. Brown, American Indian Lesbian Women and Gay Men, xxi.
88. Ibid., xix.
89. Ibid., xxiii.
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The Significance of the Lake Monster in
Louise Erdrich's TRACKS
Mohsen Hanifa & Seyed Mohammad Marandib
a Kharazmi University
b University of Tehran
Published online: 17 Sep 2014.
To cite this article: Mohsen Hanif & Seyed Mohammad Marandi
(2014) The Significance
of the Lake Monster in Louise Erdrich's TRACKS, The
Explicator, 72:3, 249-252, DOI:
10.1080/00144940.2014.928256
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The Explicator, Vol. 72, No. 3, 249–252, 2014
Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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DOI: 10.1080/00144940.2014.928256
MOHSEN HANIF
SEYED MOHAMMAD MARANDI
Kharazmi University
University of Tehran
The Significance of the Lake Monster in Louise

Erdrich’s TRACKS
Keywords: Chippewa, Louise Erdrich, Lake Monster,
Misshepeshu, Tracks
Misshepeshu, the mythical Lake Monster in Louise Erdrich’s
novel
Tracks, is usually associated with Fleur, on the grounds that
both of them
represent the Native Americans’ resistance to the dominant
colonial power.
For instance, Sánchez, Manzanas, and Simal speak about “the
courtship of
Fleur Pillager by Misshepeshu (the spirit of the lake)” (49).
Gloria Bird
contends that “Fleur’s relationship to the lake, and the creature
who lived in
the lake” constantly repeats in the novel (44). Marı́a Ruth
Noriega Sánchez
also points out that Fleur “is mostly associated with nature, in
particular
with water and her spirit guardian Misshepeshu” (96). And
Mark Shackleton
writes that “the lake contains Mishepeshu, the Anishinabe water
monster [. .
. ], representing Native resistance to white encroachments”
(198). However,
these critics disregard the fact that the symbolic presence of the
Lake Monster
has gradually transformed in postcontact era in America. No
longer does
the Lake Monster represent the indigenous people at the novel’s
time setting
between winter 1912 and spring 1924. Conversely, the Lake
Monster is the
symbolic manifestation of the colonial powers in America and,

consequently,
is more closely associated with Pauline.
Fleur is an ambiguous character. Although an outcast, she, as a
trickster,
epitomizes Native American traditional culture; Like
Nanabozho, the myth-
ical American Indian trickster, Fleur is a good gambler. She
successfully
gambles for the life of her daughter in a dreamlike magical
scene (Erdrich
159–60). Moreover, Erdrich compares Fleur with a wolf—an
animal that
249
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250 The Explicator
symbolizes Nanabozho in Chippewa mythology (Dewdney 127);
Nanapush

describes Fleur as a girl who “was wild as filthy wolf” (Erdrich
3), and
Pauline characterizes Fleur with “the white wolf grin a Pillager
turns on its
victims” (19). Pauline also refers to Fleur as “the wolf those
men met in
Argus” (88), and as a “woman, lean as a half-dead wolf” (162).
However, despite being an embodiment of Native American
values and
beliefs, Fleur is still an outsider to her community, which is
succumbing to
white culture. Although most of the local inhabitants gradually
accept the
Western way of life, Fleur remains loyal to her land and her
native identity
and thus becomes an outcast, turning, in Anne Hegerfeldt’s
terms, into an
“actual monster [. . .] the evil” (129). The inhabitants of the
reservation
think that the Lake Monster wants Fleur, and she has “married
the water
man, Misshepeshu” (Erdrich 31). Gossip has it that Fleur
“messed with evil”
(12). Eli, her husband, also believes he has seen her wake up at
midnight,
walk down to the lake, and swim deep into the water to copulate
with the
Lake Monster (106). The gossip around the reservation seems so
persuasive
in the magical context of the novel that critics such as Jesús
Benito Sánchez,
Ana M. Manzanas, and Begoña Simal; Gloria Bird; Marı́a Ruth
Noriega
Sánchez; and Mark Shackleton recapitulate it.

However, almost half of the information we obtain about Fleur
comes
from Pauline, who is an unreliable narrator. Pauline suffers
from hallucina-
tions made worse by her ardent religious beliefs. She sees the
tears of St.
Mary’s statue, “which no one else noticed” (Erdrich 94). She
spreads the
rumor that Fleur killed the three men in Argus. But when
Pauline addresses
the readers of Tracks, she contradicts her statement: “It was
Russell,” Pauline
confesses to the reader, who killed the men (27). Later, Pauline
negates this
statement, too, by saying, “it was my will” that caused the death
of the three
men (66). Rampant contradictions in Pauline’s narrative prevent
us from
accepting as true her insinuations that Fleur is in relation with
the Lake
Monster.
Misshepeshu is a protean, mythical giant who often appears as a
lion
in ancient Chippewa mythology. Yet the postcontact era
recontextualized
Misshepeshu, and its significance began to change when the
British Army
set off to settle in the prairies. Victoria Brehm remarks:
The sobriquet “underwater lion” was applied to Micipijiu [Mis-
shepeshu] when the Indians recognized his resemblance to the
royal arms of England, which feature the lion, on British medals
and trade goods. If the British had such a powerful creature as
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The Lake Monster in Louise Erdrich’s TRACKS 251
totem, the Indians reasoned, that would explain their magical
technology, their ability to drive the French off the lakes, and
their
ruthless economic control of the fur trade. With Micipijiu as
their
family manido [holy spirit], they controlled the supply of game
animals and fish, and their agents decided who prospered and
who
did not. (689)
The natives redefined the Lake Monster in a new historical
context and
recontextualized it to explain the British sovereignty. As such,

no longer
does Misshepeshu symbolize the natives’ resistance to the
whites in Tracks.
Hence, Misshepeshu begins to symbolize the colonizer, its
authority, and its
culture, rather than those of the colonized.
Furthermore, the novel provides some evidence that promotes
the idea
of the association of the Lake Monster with Pauline, rather than
with Fleur.
For instance, Nanapush, addressing Pauline, relates a folk tale
in which
he humorously suggests that Pauline has coupled with the Lake
Monster
(Erdrich 149). Besides, Erdrich employs parallel identification
between the
Lake Monster and Napoleon, the only man who has literally
copulated with
Pauline. When Pauline is on a wrecked boat floating on the
Lake, Napoleon
Morrissay tries to save her. Ironically, Pauline, mistaking him
for the Lake
Monster, “strung the noose [of her rosary] around his neck” and
murdered
Napoleon (202).
Furthermore, Erdrich employs lion-like qualities both to
describe Mis-
shepeshu and Pauline; Nanapush uses the word lion to refer to
the Lake
Monster (Erdrich 36). Pauline explains that the Lake Monster
“takes the
body of a lion, a fat brown worm, or a familiar man” (Erdrich
11). On the
other hand, two times during the novel Pauline uses the lion as a

simile to
describe herself: “I addressed God,” Pauline says, “not as a
penitent, with
humility, but rather as a dangerous lion that had burst into a
ring of pale and
fainting believer” (196). Yet the decisive moment when she lifts
her guise
and helps us identify her with the Lake Monster arrives late,
when she utters
her final sentence in Tracks: “Leopolda. I tried out the
unfamiliar syllables.
They fit. They cracked in my ears like a fist through ice” (205,
emphasis
in original). She decides to change her name to Leopolda, which
in Latin
means “like a lion.”
Indeed, Misshepeshu, which in the postcontact period is
represented by
the image of a lion, no longer reflects native resistance to
colonial power.
The Lake Monster undergoes complete transformation, allies
itself with
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252 The Explicator
colonialism, and becomes antagonistic to the Native American
society, thus
evoking Pauline rather than Fleur in the novel.
Works Cited
Bird, Gloria. “Searching for Evidence of Colonialism at Work:
A Reading of Louise Erdrich’s Tracks.”
Wicazo Sa Review 8.2 (1992): 40–47. Print.
Brehm, Victoria. “Metamorphosis of an Ojibewa Manido.”
American Literature 68.4 (1996): 677–706.
Print.
Dewdney, Selwyn. The Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway.
Calgary: U of Toronto P, 1975. Print.
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. New York: Perennial Library, 1988.
Print.
Hegerfeldt, Anne C. Lies That Tell the Truth: Magic Realism
Seen Through Contemporary Fiction
from Britain. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. Print.
Sánchez, Jesús Benito, Ana M. Manzanas, and Begoña Simal.
Uncertain Mirrors: Magical Realism
in US Ethnic Literature. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. Print.
Sánchez, Marı́a Ruth Noriega. Challenging Realities: Magic
Realism in Contemporary American
Women’s Fiction. Valencia: Universitat de València, 2002.
Print.
Shackleton, Mark. “‘June Walked over It Like Water and Came
Home’: Cross-Cultural Symbolism

in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine and Tracks.” Transatlantic
Voices: Interpretations of Native
North American Literatures. Ed. Elvira Pulitano. Lincoln: U of
Nebraska P, 2007. 188–205. Print.
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Surname 1
Surname 2
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Essay
PART A

Source in Tracks
Hanif, Mohsen, and Seyed Mohammad Marandi. "The
Significance of the Lake Monster in Louise Erdrich's
TRACKS." The Explicator 72.3 (2014): 249-252.
Claims and analysis
Claim I: “representing Native resistance to native
encroachment (Hanif and Marandi, 249).”
In this context, the authors indicate an era that is marked by
natural obstacles like plagues and feminine as well as the
encroachment or progress that the White man’s circumlocution
for abate Indian share of land and economic and political
bondage for all the crafty and strongest of the Native people in
America.
Claim II: “Fleur is still an outsider to her community, which is
succumbing to White culture (Hanif and Marandi, 250).”
Fleur is depicted as the real victim of the way of life of the
Whites. She is symbolic of the historical predicament of the
Anishabe.
Claim III: “She spreads the rumor that Fleur killed the men in
Argus (Hanif and Marandi, 250).”
The claim implies that Fleur was the one to be blamed for the
deaths of the people. Pauline uttered the words because she is
about to visit Fleur who may have gotten married to the water
spirit Misshepeshu or have been taken by the White men.
Reflection to the claims
I agree with the claim that Fleur is still an outsider in her
community. On a larger perspective, the author was examining
the struggles of the Native Americans in the first twenty years
of the twentieth century. What Fleur was experiencing is what

many Native Americans were facing; an era that was marked by
natural obstacles which included a plague and famine as stated
earlier. However, I do not agree with the claim that Pauline was
spreading the rumor that she had killed the men. It is hard to
believe the claim as later in the narrative, Pauline agrees that
she was the cause of the death of the people and thus a
contradiction. I understand that Pauline suffers from
hallucination (Hanif and Marandi, 250). Whatever she says
should not be put into consideration unless her state of mind is
proven.
Source in Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Keenan, Deirdre. "Unrestricted Territory: Gender, Two Spirits,
and Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little
No Horse." American Indian culture and research journal 30.2
(2006): 1-15.
Claims and analysis
Claim I: “Even in lesbian and gay communities, transgender
people are often reluctantly accepted or overtly excluded
(Kenaan, 2).”
The claim indicates that in any society that has a defined culture
that each member of society must adhere, a deviation from the
mainstream culture results to segregation. It is often difficult if
not impossible to cross boundaries that are beyond the
mainstream culture.
Claim II: “The representation of traditional gender variance is
not solely dependent on the subject of Father Damien (Kenaan,
5).”
The author brings the presence of Father Damian in a traditional
context to stress on the point that the White man’s forced and
forceful responsibility in a private environment. Thus, the strict
codes of conduct of the Catholic Church do not easily match up

with the spirituality of the Native Americans.
Claim III: "When one believes that sex is given by nature in two
incommensurable forms, the attitude toward that which is non-
binary shifts from ambivalence and awe to horror and scorn
(Kenaan, 8)."
In a cultural context, sex is as a result of nature and Kenaan
means that the moment a person believes the mainstream
culture, and then sex-gender system kicks in. Father Damian is
leaving in two worlds which the author refers to as “in two
incommensurable forms (Kenaan, 8).” Father Damian’s goal was
baptizing as many Natives as possible as a way of bestowing
forgiveness.
Reflection of the claims
In my view, the claims as depicted by Kenaan are a significant
way of giving the reader insights of some key happenings in the
reading. For instance, the representation of traditional sex
variance conveys the author’s message on the desperation of life
on the reservation; Father Damian and the secret about his
gender but with good intentions. However, I do not agree with
Kanaan (2) that people like the gays and the lesbians in the
community may be discriminated. The larger population can
exclude them, but with time, most of them are always accepted
back.
PART B
Freedman, Jane. "Explaining sexual violence and gender
inequalities in the DRC." Peace Review: A Journal of Social
Justice 23.2 (2011): 170-175.
Summary of the Article
In the article, Freedman addresses the gender-based violence
that has been taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo

(Freedman, 171). She states that despite the progress that has
been reported after the end of the conflicts by many
humanitarian organizations in helping victims of sex-related
violence, the number of cases that goes unreported is still high.
Freedman goes ahead to indicate that DRC has been named
among the worst places for women globally especially with the
widespread of rape and sexual violence cases and the complete
impunity for the perpetrators of the crimes. She provides a
detailed analysis of gender connections in Congo. Freedman
(172) goes way beyond the usual reports of sexual violence as a
result of misunderstandings as a way of assessing the broad and
social constructed gender norms and duties which underlie
sexual assaults.
How the article will be used in my Analysis
My analysis involves addressing the issues that Native
American faced especially women. Explaining sexual violence
and gender inequalities by Freedman contain insightful
information that will help me understand how various issues
may result in gender-based violence, peacebuilding, violence,
and reconstruction. For instance, the author’s views of a
comprehensive account of men and women roles in conflict will
be helpful in understanding some happenings in my analysis
paper such as traditionally men being unable to play with cards
with the ladies. Freeman’s ideas will provide my analysis of
female power valuable and wide variety of concepts based on
the new analysis. Some concepts that ideally put men above
women has been for a long time been the primary causes of
conflicts. However, Freedman has a more detailed analysis that
covers almost all aspects of the society such as responsibilities,
norms and typically the culture that has been formed by
communities.
Fleur

Female power
A consistent increase in the discussion circulation around the
topic of female power has been going on. There has been a
portrayal of female power as women leave the cocoons of
weakness to assume senior leadership positions. Louise El-drich
in his novel Fleur painted the picture of the female power
associated with one character Fleur Pillager and the narrator
Pauline. Just like in the modern world where roles of women
face evolution as a result of the power assumed by women, in
the novel, the aspect of female power by challenging male
chauvinism results in the transformation of both butchers’ and
Pauline’s attitude to Fleur.
There were experienced changes at Kozka’s Meats, a joint
owned by Pete Kozka. The men working at this butchery never
took notice of the ladies that were around them. Pauline is one
of a typical example. She swept floor, did everything as a
woman does, while, the men still ignored her. They never
viewed Pauline from her physical angle as women. Because they
viewed women as the weaker gender, and whose place is only in
the kitchen. However, things took a turn on the arrival of Fleur
Pillager. Fleur became the subject of the men’s discussion. One
of the external reason of the changes is the physical appearance
of Fleur. The author highlights the aspect of Fleur “dressing up
like a man” (El-drich 177) a sort of a surprise to the community.
Such is a clear indication of courage and power to stand out and
even dress as men do.
Moreover, the power that Fleur had, and especially in her hands,
resulted in her acquiring a job at Kozka’s Meats (El-drich 178).
The author informs that Pete, the owner of Kozka’s Meats
employed Fleur due to her displayed prowess. It was unlikely
for a woman of her age to do things that she was doing, which
might be the internal reason for the transformation.
Traditionally, and especially to the men working at the Kozka’s
Meats, it was unusual for them to be playing cards with women.
The game was a reservation for the men only. Nevertheless,

Fleur’s prowess was not only manifested in how she
maneuvered around the job, but also played with the other
butchers at cards. The first time she did play the game, the
author observes that the butchers were surprised by how she
gained momentum in the game. Fleur won most of the games
that they played. The money Pauline offered her “attracted
dimes until there was a small pile in front of her” (El-drich
182).
While, these transformations get to a dangerous level when
Fleur didn’t manifest her female power. The behavior of Fleur’s
always wining a dollar, creating a sense of suspicion among the
other butchers, which resulted the rape. El-drich notes that the
men chase Fleur into a smokehouse, caught her and then raped
her. Even though Fleur cried out Pauline’s name for help,
Pauline was unable to stand up for herself or for Fleur at the
crucial time. What depicts is that a sense of defiance encircled
both. Fleur left peacefully later which the author seemed to
communicate that the society often fails to enjoy the full
potential of a woman due to looking at women through their
physical attributes.
Most literature works often have a message that they try to
communicate whether directly or indirectly, and Fleur by Louise
El-drich is no exception. Barnett on her Telegraph post noted
that women were slowly leaving the shadows of their husband to
stand firm in their capacity. Barnett used the example of Hillary
Clinton who was pursuing a political position after being an
ardent supporter of her husband. Similarly, just like Barnett, El-
drich seemed to send the message that women were getting out
of their comfort zones like Fleur.
Another interesting thing in this novel is the binary of Pauline
and Fleur. Pauline had been working at the Kozka’s Meats, and
the men never noticed her and her abilities. It seems she was an
invisible, forgotten character. The author also notes that “the
men would not have seen me no matter what I did” (El-drich
180). Her efforts, therefore, went unnoticed despite how
dedicated she remained. The binary of Fleur’s full character and

Pauline’s flat character is obvious.
Pauline used to fear Fleur. The reason for this maybe because
the men took notice of Fleur, which was different when it came
to Pauline; or because she seemed to have lots of strength and
was appealing due to her physical outlook. However, within a
period, there was a change of the narrative, implying Pauline’s
slaming down the meat locker at the end of the story; in other
words, implying her awakening of challenging male chauvinism.
One fateful night, Pauline, out of tiring due to the nature of her
work dozed off on a heap of sawdust. Gently, Fleur picked her
up and laid her off to sleep on a bunch of files that acted like a
mattress to Pauline (El-drich 198). The author highlights that
Pauline was; “no longer afraid of her, but followed her close,
stayed with her, became her moving shadow that the men never
noticed” (El-drich 181).
The message that the author seemed to communicate is that
women always have an overlooked extraordinary power. When a
woman applies for a senior position, the first thing that clouds
the judgment of people is that she is incapable of performing.
The reason they offer to this explanation is the fact that she is a
woman. The men at the Kozka’s Meats took notice of Fleur
Pillager because of her physical features and not her ability to
perform. To these men, Fleur was more ornamental than
functional. However, they were proved wrong. Fleur would
perform exemplary in the duties assigned to her along with the
men. In fact, the author observes that during the period that a
heat tide engulfed Argus, only Fleur remained active as the
others were weak due to the heat (El-drich 181), illustrating
another kind of female power.

Works Cited
El-drich, Louise. “Fleur” 1988
Barnett, Emma. “What does Female Power Look Like?” The
Telegraph 27th June 2015.
Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-
life/11702489/What-does-Female-Power-look-like.html
Modify fleur research paper (named Modify in the attachment)
and the claim is why gender inequality happened? Related to the
article Fleur ONLY. After modifying the research paper, answer
some questions in a new document. Paper Topic & Focus
1. This should be a “healthy,” thoughtful paragraph describing
your paper topic in relatively broad terms. What is your primary
source? What are the repetitions, strands, or binaries you plan
to focus on? How are you going to move beyond the obvious?
2. Central Line of Inquiry
In a question or two, what are you trying to figure out about
your primary source?
3. “Working” Thesis or “hunch”
The thesis statement as you’ll present it at the beginning of
your paper. This can be rough.
4. 3-5 Pieces of “Complicating” Evidence (means evidence
shows that Fleur is weak)
Either in list form or in a paragraph, jot down the 3-5 most
important pieces of complicating evidence. These should come

from both the primary and secondary sources.
5. What happened after Fleur had been raped?
**6 Secondary Sources (in the attachment named Second
Source) (IMPORTANT) (I also attached 3 articles if u need to
use named article 1, 2, and 3)
Either directly quoted or paraphrased, tell me the 5 most
important quotes you’ll be using from your secondary sources.
Below, write how you’ll use it to develop your paper, according
to the handout. (You don’t need to write an entire paragraph,
just write “agree & add something,” disagree & explain why” or
“both agree & disagree & explain why.”)
MLA style just answer each question thoughtfully. There should
be 2 essays at the end: one should be the modify one and the
other should be the answering question one.

Peace Review A Journal of Social Justice, 23170–175Copyrig.docx

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